A fashion retailer’s guide to successful Email Marketing

The use of email marketing within eCommerce differs depending on sector. Our email marketing department share their wisdom on how emails work in the fashion industry.

Welcoming your subscribersWelcome emails generate 320% more revenue than other promotional emails. (Easy-SMTP, 2015)Within the fashion industry it is key to welcome subscribers to your brand. Sending welcome emails once subscribers have joined your mailing list can help them feel valued and more likely to purchase one of your products. To put it simply, if a customer has signed up to your mailing list – they are interested in what you have to offer!

Be on trendStatistics say 55% of all emails are now opened on a mobile device. (Email Monday, 2016)As a fashion retailer, it is important to keep up with the latest trends and this also applies to your email marketing. You want your subscribers interested in your emails enough to make a purchase. If your email marketing is not optimised for mobile, you’re likely to lose subscribers thick and fast!

Show your subscribers that you careBirthday emails have a 481% higher transaction rate than promotional emails. (Campaign Monitor, 2015)Personalise your email marketing. Send your subscribers an email on their birthday with a discount code to incentify a purchase. Showing subscribers you care makes them more likely to feel valued by your brand and shop on your site.

Seasonal trendsWhen sending emails to a retail consumer, involve seasonal trends, dates and events even down to the weather. For example, if it’s forecast snow, send an email promoting your winter coats and snow boots. Your subscribers are likely to already be thinking about these trends meaning an immediate relation to your subject line.

Be aware of competitorsIt is unlikely that you are the only retail mailing list that your subscribers have joined. It is important to be aware of your competitors. Sign up to their mailing lists and record your findings; compare frequency of emails, subject lines, content and basket abandonment emails. What are they doing better? What are you doing better? Some leading fashion retailers are missing out on welcome emails, birthday emails etc. So, what makes you unique?

Basket abandonmentOn average, 67.4% of users will abandon their basket at the checkout. (Hubspot, 2015)You may have noticed when shopping online, if you add items in your basket and then do not complete a purchase, you are sent a basket abandonment email from the retailer. These gentle reminders display the products which have been left in your basket and are designed to encourage you to complete your purchase. This simple tool allows huge amounts of revenue to be recovered. Emails as short as ‘Did you forget something?’ can see huge results. And remember, a customer shopping for black dresses on your website might have done the same on a competitor’s site. If they send an email and you don’t, you could lose that potential revenue.

Valentine’s DayDid you know on average men spend £40 on their partner, with an average spend of £24 by women. (Evolution Monkey, 2015)With February fast approaching, Valentine’s Day is just around the corner. This is a huge date for the eCommerce calendar, and especially important for fashion retailers. Run-up emails are successful, ‘Order now to receive before Valentine’s Day’, ‘Last day for delivery in time for Valentine’s’ etc, as well as ‘Happy Valentine’s Day’ emails on the day to show how much you ‘love’ your subscribers. In 2017, expect to see lots of ‘We Love our New Jeans’, ‘Show Him The Love’ and ‘Get Ready for V-Day’. Targeted emails can be effective for Valentine’s Day, so it may be useful to send an email promoting gifts for men to buy their partners and another showing male gifts to women.

Final footnoteAs a fashion retailer your brand needs to relate to the latest trends and keep ahead of the game to interest your subscribers. Make sure you are utilizing all the latest email marketing technology; mobile responsive emails, welcome emails and basket abandonment emails can help increase revenue from your seasonal emails.

If you’re a fashion retailer and want to turn heads with your Email Marketing campaigns, call us on 01642 633604 or get in touch with our Head of Email Marketing, Lindsey Roberts, at [email protected] who’ll be happy to help you learn more.

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